Reviews of 'Avenue Q'

The producer Kevin McCollum, with Anika Larsen and the Avenue Q cast on Sunday night.

In June it was announced that “Avenue Q,” an adult takeoff of children’s shows like “Sesame Street,” would close at the Golden Theater. But at what was to be its final performance, Kevin McCollum, the lead producer, said that “Avenue Q,” which in 2004 won the Tony Award for best musical, would move to New World Stages in Clinton, where it would resume performances on Oct. 9.

In a telephone interview Mr. McCollum said that a transfer of “Avenue Q” had been contemplated as far back as February, when ticket sales for the show dipped briefly below the minimum that it guaranteed the Golden Theater. In recent weeks, Mr. McCollum said, he and fellow producers Robyn Goodman and Jeffrey Seller had begun to gravitate to New World Stages, where offbeat fare like “The Gazillion Bubble Show” and “The Toxic Avenger” had thrived. The deal with New World Stages was signed on Sunday, and Mr. McCollum officially revealed it that night to the “Avenue Q” performers, crew and audience members in an onstage speech.

Robert Lopez, who is a creator and composer of “Avenue Q” with Jeff Marx, said in a telephone interview that he had learned of the transfer last week.

He said he suspected though that other people in attendance on Sunday may have known that the announcement was coming. “There’s a line in the show about downsizing,” Mr. Lopez said, “and I could tell there were about 50 people that laughed in the audience, so I figured they knew the secret.”

Mr. Lopez added that Mr. McCollum had asked him to compose a novelty song about the “Avenue Q” transfer to be performed at Sunday’s announcement. “I think I was able to convince him that it would have seemed too planned,” Mr. Lopez said.

The move from the Golden, which seats about 800 people, to New World Stages, where “Avenue Q” will play to about 500 people a show, and where the top ticket price will be reduced to $86.50 from about $110, will result in some cost savings for the production. Mr. McCollum said its capitalization would be reduced to between $800,000 and $1 million, from about $3.5 million for the Broadway run (which had been earned back). And weekly advertising costs, he said, would be lowered to about $10,000 from $50,000.

Salaries for the performers could come down too. Mr. McCollum said the minimum weekly salary for an Off Broadway performer was about $1,100, compared with $1,600 for a Broadway performer. A spokeswoman for Actors’ Equity Association said that the producers had been given permission to close the show and reopen it under a new contract. Mr. McCollum said offers had gone out for the Off Broadway production, but no casting was ready to be announced.

Mr. Lopez said the Off Broadway production would likely use a smaller group of musicians, similar to the original Off Broadway run at the Vineyard Theater in 2003, and some reorchestration of the music might be needed. Otherwise it will use the same sets (and same puppets), and its creative team, including its director Jason Moore and book author Jeff Whitty, will remain.

Mr. McCollum said this was the first time that a musical had transferred to an Off Broadway theater from a Broadway house in the same season. A spokesman for the Off Broadway League said that at least two other productions have previously made this move, including the drama “ ’night, Mother” in 1984 and the musical “Billy Bishop Goes to War,” which played 12 Broadway performances in 1980. The Broadway League said it did not keep records on such events, but similar transfers are exceedingly rare. The musical “Simply Heavenly,” with book and lyrics by Langston Hughes, moved from the Playhouse on Broadway to the Renata Theater in Greenwich Village, but that was in 1957.

Mr. McCollum said he was proud to keep alive a musical that satirizes difficult economic realities during a period of financial downturn.

“We just think it’s important that we stay in New York, and we stay in the neighborhood,” he said. “Now we’ll let the public decide if it’s a good idea or not.”